We stopped briefly at a textile shop/museum. Several women demonstrated the old techniques of weaving the wool of the llama, alpace and vicuna in beautifully soft and colourful yarn. These girls and ladies were beautiful Quechua people, come down from the hills for a few days to weave and sell their wares. They were genuine, shy and friendly and spoke little or no Spanish, only their native Quechua, which our local guide Jackie could speak.
From there to a llama farm, where we walked among the llama and alpaca, petting them and feeding them alfalfa. One sought revenge on me for dining on his relative and spit a foul green slime into my face and on my jacket. Soap and water healed the insult, but I resolved to eat another alpaca at my earliest chance, preferably that one !!
Pisac wore me out. It's a market town where, in the main square, locals ( mostly women ) sell their produce. In the alleys off the square, local vendors sell clothes and handicrafts. We all made numerous purchases, ensuring that the local ecomony does well.
An unscheduled stop at an animal resuce facility treated us to a couple of rare sights. An Andean puma was lying in a cage, victim of abuse at a circus, and we witnessed the awesome sight of a full-grown Andean condor, with an 11 foot wingspan, skim over our heads. Impressive, but I saw Pablo watch disapprovingly. He confessed later that he hates to see caged animals and I thought of the dispirited puma, lying almost helpless and quietly in his cage. But the guide of the shelter preached a positive message to us: don't buy animal souvenirs in your travels, because the animals used in the making of souvenirs will wind up here or dead. All the animals in the rescue centre were damged by circuses, souvenir hunters or cruel owners and cannot survive in the wild. It's not a good life for them, but it's better than their previous existance. But I still feel sad for the puma.
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